1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:15,000 This is Hacker Public Radio episode 3,943 for Wednesday the 13th of September 23. 2 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:20,400 Today's show is entitled, why my Dell does it better on Linux? 3 00:00:20,400 --> 00:00:24,840 It is hosted by Nightwise and is about 12 minutes long. 4 00:00:24,840 --> 00:00:27,480 It carries a clean flag. 5 00:00:27,480 --> 00:00:41,480 The summary is, Nightwise talks about how he uses his Dell XPS 15 with Linux. 6 00:00:41,480 --> 00:00:46,360 Hey there Hacker Public Radio, this is Nightwise from the Nightwise.com podcast and I wanted 7 00:00:46,360 --> 00:00:56,120 to send in a quick show about my experiences on running Ubuntu on my Dell XPS 50. 8 00:00:56,120 --> 00:01:03,560 I've been a Linux user since about 2000 and have often on always had at least some form 9 00:01:03,560 --> 00:01:04,880 of Linux in my life. 10 00:01:04,880 --> 00:01:10,680 I'm a cross-platform geek which means that I jump around from windows to the back to Linux 11 00:01:10,680 --> 00:01:16,720 on a daily basis and I love to have multiple operating systems at my fingertips just 12 00:01:16,720 --> 00:01:21,320 to geek out and get some variety. 13 00:01:21,320 --> 00:01:28,560 Luckily, however, I've had a little bit of a rough time getting my hands into the Linux 14 00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:32,840 desktop because, quite frankly, I was too busy to tinker. 15 00:01:32,840 --> 00:01:38,160 I needed machines that would work for me that would really get things done and I didn't 16 00:01:38,160 --> 00:01:42,120 have a lot of time to poke around. 17 00:01:42,120 --> 00:01:47,720 So I ended up spending most of my time on my Windows machine and on my Mac. 18 00:01:47,800 --> 00:01:54,600 I run my own business, I work as freelance consultant so that means that sometimes I 19 00:01:54,600 --> 00:02:02,440 need to use production machines, sometimes I need to use the clients machine so I didn't 20 00:02:02,440 --> 00:02:11,800 really have time to get around and play with Linux and I say play because it has been 21 00:02:11,880 --> 00:02:18,760 that, at least from the desktop side of things for the last years, playing around with 22 00:02:18,760 --> 00:02:25,880 the operating system and installing it, getting it done, but not really using it in anger. 23 00:02:25,880 --> 00:02:32,040 As an experiment during Corona during the COVID era, I, because I was working from home 24 00:02:32,040 --> 00:02:40,600 predominantly and the client at that time allowed it, worked from a Linux workstation full 25 00:02:41,240 --> 00:02:48,200 time. I was using Linux for a living and in my cross-platform journey from operating system 26 00:02:48,200 --> 00:02:53,640 to operating system, I managed to get everything done on any machine that I would open up. 27 00:02:54,520 --> 00:03:01,080 Now, of course you say, otherwise that's not really hard to do, you basically just need the cloud 28 00:03:01,880 --> 00:03:07,640 and that's about it. And if you would say that you're right, it didn't always use to be like that. 29 00:03:08,520 --> 00:03:16,440 Hence, the 20 years of podcasting, but it pretty much comes out of the fact that if you can 30 00:03:16,440 --> 00:03:23,000 install your favorite browser and run your favorite web apps, you can almost do anything that you want to do. 31 00:03:25,240 --> 00:03:34,600 So, why did I pick up the Dell XPS 15 and started to play with Linux? Well, that is an interesting 32 00:03:34,600 --> 00:03:40,040 story because it is not really for the reason that you want to think about. 33 00:03:41,320 --> 00:03:48,040 You might think about it. I'm working for a large IT company as a consultant for a couple of days 34 00:03:48,040 --> 00:03:56,200 and they gave me one of their workstations that is completely managed. I think some kind of HP laptop, 35 00:03:56,200 --> 00:04:02,920 I don't know what it is. It is made from aluminum, it is razor sharp, it is a 2 in 1 which is 36 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:10,280 absolutely useless when it comes out to Windows 11 and it has a terrible, terrible screen. 37 00:04:11,240 --> 00:04:22,200 It's one of these hard plastic screens with for use as a touch screen and it is very small 38 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:28,920 and it is very reflective. That would not be a problem since I was mostly when I'm working 39 00:04:28,920 --> 00:04:33,160 from home, I'm working indoors, I hook it up to my dog and I work from there. 40 00:04:34,840 --> 00:04:42,280 But, it being summer, I also got a little frustrated that I couldn't really work from outside. 41 00:04:42,280 --> 00:04:47,480 I couldn't do anything outside and I didn't sit in doors all day because I couldn't sit on my porch 42 00:04:47,480 --> 00:04:56,440 work from that laptop because I couldn't see squats. I had thoughts because they mostly work 43 00:04:56,440 --> 00:05:07,560 from a cloud environment to use my own machine. Windows machine or my Mac to use it as my 44 00:05:07,560 --> 00:05:16,440 bring your own device. But, because of this company's quite aggressive policy when it comes to mobile 45 00:05:16,440 --> 00:05:24,600 device management, when I tried it out with my iPad, I noticed that the iPad almost got onboarded 46 00:05:24,680 --> 00:05:33,400 into their MDM and now dear friends, I love my clients but I don't love them enough to give them 47 00:05:33,400 --> 00:05:39,160 government governance over the machines that I use for my own company and personally. 48 00:05:40,760 --> 00:05:47,480 So, when I thought about giving it a try to do a little bring your own device for this customer 49 00:05:47,480 --> 00:05:56,600 and using my Mac or my Linux machine to connect to their environment, I thought like maybe not. 50 00:05:56,600 --> 00:06:04,120 Maybe not these. Maybe I can use something that they have a harder time onboarding and that 51 00:06:04,120 --> 00:06:14,600 gives them only a browser to play with and that of course would be Linux. So, I installed Ubuntu 52 00:06:14,680 --> 00:06:21,880 and I think it's 22.04 or even later up. I can't remember it's the latest long-term support 53 00:06:21,880 --> 00:06:29,560 distra that's on there and install that on my Dell XPS. Now, I have to admit something. 54 00:06:32,760 --> 00:06:41,320 Windows on the Dell XPS 15 that I own is not the operating system that gives me the best experience 55 00:06:42,200 --> 00:06:49,720 and that's something I didn't expect because I've been owning laptops for the longest time 56 00:06:49,720 --> 00:06:55,720 and I've been playing around with Linux for the longest time and over the last couple of years ago 57 00:06:55,720 --> 00:07:03,960 I got myself a Dell XPS 13. I really liked it and I thought I was going to bite the bullet. I was going 58 00:07:03,960 --> 00:07:13,800 to run Linux on this thing so I ordered it OEM with Linux on it. Long to hold, it was not the best 59 00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:21,400 experience. The Bluetooth flash Wi-Fi card just wasn't supported under Linux so I could have Wi-Fi 60 00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:29,800 but I couldn't get any Bluetooth device to connect. I ended up opening up my Dell laptop 61 00:07:29,800 --> 00:07:39,880 which was OEM shipped with Ubuntu swapping out the Bluetooth slash Wi-Fi card and putting 62 00:07:39,880 --> 00:07:47,560 it in another one from another brand in order for it to work. So I was a little bit disappointed 63 00:07:47,560 --> 00:07:55,640 at that. So when I got my hands on this second-hand Dell XPS 15 I thought like, well, 64 00:07:56,600 --> 00:08:02,120 let's not do the Linux thing, just give it plain Windows. So give it Windows 11 with all the 65 00:08:02,120 --> 00:08:08,040 drivers and all the updates and everything the Dell tells you to install so I thought this isn't 66 00:08:08,040 --> 00:08:14,680 OEM install of a Dell machine like it's supposed to be only to end up with a hovercraft. 67 00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:24,760 Under Windows the Dell XPS 15 that I own makes an enormous amount of fan noise for absolutely 68 00:08:24,760 --> 00:08:31,640 no reason. Even if the machine is idling the fan is active not I've been owning fan 69 00:08:31,640 --> 00:08:38,840 less machines for a couple of years now I've got a MacBook Pro M1 and a Surface Pro X which 70 00:08:38,840 --> 00:08:47,240 all have passive cooling. And that to me was wow what is this this this things make things makes 71 00:08:47,240 --> 00:08:57,400 noise why why machine do you make noise because it's not doing anything. So I tinker to 72 00:08:57,400 --> 00:09:03,160 around with it and I fath around with it and I found like no it's not really getting any better 73 00:09:04,440 --> 00:09:12,920 it's just the way it is. So I decided to give Linux ago so I installed the latest version of Ubuntu 74 00:09:13,880 --> 00:09:19,880 I installed a proprietary drivers because there's an Nvidia card on there that I want to use 75 00:09:19,880 --> 00:09:27,320 I don't see why I want to use the discrete graphics of that stupid intel that makes my display look 76 00:09:27,320 --> 00:09:35,800 all I don't know cheap. So if there's a great Nvidia graphics card in there why not use it so 77 00:09:35,800 --> 00:09:44,760 I decided to go that way and I ended up with a machine that was surprisingly fast that had a very 78 00:09:44,760 --> 00:09:56,840 good graphics display because of the Nvidia graphics card driving the visuals and that was 79 00:09:56,920 --> 00:10:07,400 hard to manage by some kind of windows into mdm environment. So I gave it a try yesterday I took 80 00:10:07,400 --> 00:10:13,960 chromium a browser that I don't use for any of my other projects because for my private stuff I use 81 00:10:13,960 --> 00:10:22,120 firefox and for everything that's to do with my company I do use edge and decided to install 82 00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:31,160 everything on there. Hooked up with the client's cloud environment and well there little 83 00:10:31,160 --> 00:10:38,280 in tune mdm didn't really get its claws into my machine now did it and ended up spending the entire 84 00:10:38,280 --> 00:10:46,280 afternoon working outside using the beautiful matte display that I have on the del xbs 15 the Nvidia 85 00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:55,720 graphics card that gives a great video resolution and Linux as my operating system to basically 86 00:10:55,720 --> 00:11:04,200 do what I needed to do. So in the end results I am very happy with why little setup and if 87 00:11:04,200 --> 00:11:12,680 ever you need to work for another client that wants to do some remote management on your machines 88 00:11:12,680 --> 00:11:20,600 and you don't really trust it this might also be something that you can do. And on the other hand it 89 00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:28,680 really gives a feather in the cap of what Linux is all about you don't want to have your machine 90 00:11:28,680 --> 00:11:35,880 managed and doing things in the background you want to freedom and here for the well for the first time 91 00:11:35,880 --> 00:11:44,280 in in a real situation I can vouch for Linux as being the operating system that does protect 92 00:11:44,280 --> 00:11:52,920 my freedoms and my privacy and that kind of guards my own personal digital environment without 93 00:11:52,920 --> 00:12:02,760 being prone to whatever runs in the back. A sandbox maybe a firewall between corporate and what I am 94 00:12:02,840 --> 00:12:13,160 doing I don't know or maybe just a plain good OS to run on that del xbs 15 runs better 95 00:12:14,120 --> 00:12:21,160 battery life is super graphic card is well supported although with proprietary drivers 96 00:12:22,040 --> 00:12:30,600 display is fantastic I love the del's 15 inch matte display I hate glossy displays with a passion 97 00:12:31,560 --> 00:12:41,720 and it gives me the privacy that I need to separate whatever I do for one customer with the things 98 00:12:41,720 --> 00:12:50,200 that I do for the other customer another yay for Linux if you also have an open source or just plain 99 00:12:50,200 --> 00:12:57,720 geeky story to tell record a show send it to HPR be part of the community and inspire 100 00:12:57,800 --> 00:13:05,560 everybody else until next time this was night wise and the night wise I can't podcast see you guys 101 00:13:08,120 --> 00:13:13,000 you have been listening to Hecker Public Radio at Hecker Public Radio.org 102 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:19,960 today's show was contributed by a HPR listening like yourself if you ever thought of a coin podcast 103 00:13:20,120 --> 00:13:27,640 click on our contribute link to find out how easy it means hosting price VR has been kindly provided 104 00:13:27,640 --> 00:13:36,360 by an onsthost.com internet archive and our synced.net on the satellite stages today show is released 105 00:13:36,360 --> 00:13:45,480 on our creative comments attribution for pointo international license